PHOTOS: Inside GTMO’s abandoned Camp X-Ray detention center

With President Obama renewing his vow to close detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Medill News Service traveled to the base and photographed the abandoned Camp X-Ray detention center.

The military used Camp X-Ray from 1994 to 1996 to house tens-of-thousands of Haitian and Cuban refugees who were seeking asylum in the U.S.

The camp, reopened in 2002, held the war’s first detainees. They arrived in orange jump suits, darkened goggles and ear covers. At its height, it housed roughly 300 suspected terrorists in rows of chain-linked, open-air cells. It included guard towers and wooden cabins, where the accused were admitted, received medical care and subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. The detainees were transferred to a different camp at Guantanamo in April 2003.

By mid-2015, Camp X-Ray was overgrown with weeds, isolated and empty.

The entrance to Camp X-Ray, located at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the temporary holding facility for detainees captured in the war on terror. It opened in January 2002 with 20 detainees and was shut down in 2003. (Photo: Matt Yurus / Medill News Service)

Detainees were taken to cinderblock showers almost immediately after arriving at Camp X-Ray. It took roughly four hours to process a detainee. (Photo: Matt Yurus / Medill News Service)

Each detainee was confined to a cell that was 64 square feet. Early on detainees were given 30 minutes of recreation time per week. (Photo: Noor Wazwaz / Medill News Service)

About Medill Washington

The stories here were reported, written and produced by Northwestern University graduate journalism students in the Washington program of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications . Most also were published or broadcast by media organizations served by the school's unique news distribution plan. We specialize in enterprise reporting, multimedia and online journalism, as well as on accountability, working to uncover misbehavior by people in power.